Lucky Charms Cupcakes

I wanted a St. Patrick's themed treat for my niece, nephew, and sister who are coming tonight for a sleepover.

Because my husband and I both still have a soft-spot for the cereals of our youth, I was sold on idea of Lucky Charms Cupcakes from the Cupcake Project.

However, I couldn't wrap my mind around the homemade corn syrup and homemade Lucky Charms. For one, I'm trying to be a little less crazy with the time I spend in the kitchen. For another, as a born and raised Midwestern girl, I could not get my mind around corn on the cob in March.

So I went the lazy way, and just followed the ideas from the Cupcake Project:
1) I used the Lucky Charms crust (doubled) in the recipe. However, I left lots of the marshmallows in the cereal mix (store-bought), only taking out some for the cupcake topping. I realized after I got the crust in the food processor that it turned an eery green. My husband taste-tested just the crust, and said it was delicious so I proceeded. Once I tasted the crust baked on the cupcake I also loved it, and I think the marshmallows must have added to the chewy sweetness. So if you do remove all marshmallows to avoid a funky color, maybe replace them with chopped white mini-marshmallows?

The doubled crust recipe filled 24 cupcakes + 4 star shaped cupcakes in my silicone mold.

2) I folded 2+ cups of Lucky Charms into the prepared batter of a Betty Crocker yellow cake mix.

The batter with the extra cereal filled 24 cupcakes + 6 stars, but the cupcakes were not overly-filled (I could have made fewer, bigger cupcakes).

3) Normally I love chocolate frosting on yellow cupcakes. So I made the sticky chocolate icing, that I've mentioned here before.

My husband and I each tried 1) a quarter of a cupcake with the sticky chocolate, and 2) a quarter of a cupcake with this buttercream frosting, leftover from yesterday's brownie pie.

The buttercream won hands down!!!

So I frosted the rest with green buttercream and topped with the reserved Lucky Charms marshmallows.

Next up? If I have the energy after the sleepover, I'll make the kids either green or rainbow pancakes for St. Patrick's day tomorrow!